See, think, make. Imagine Creating Movie Magic www.intofilm.org Our downloadable resources are designed to be used in conjunction with selected film titles, which are available free for clubs at www.filmclub.org Bring to life the magic of the movies in your classroom by using this guidance sheet to help your students plan, design and create their own special effect. By becoming creators, students will begin to understand why IP is important. Up to 2 hours Learning objectives: • All will begin to understand the hard work that goes into creating a film and the importance of Intellectual Property • Most will be able to describe how to re-create a special effect in the classroom • Some will be able to evaluate how to improve the quality of their own special effect. What you will need: • Refer to health and safety section in Teachers’ Notes • Interactive whiteboard or similar • Camera • Background or scenery • Figures or props that you want to use in your special effect • Student activity sheets – How to Create Forced Perspective with Models and Actors (Resource 3.1a) • Student worksheet – Forced Perspective Flow Chart (Resource 3.1b) • Camera Angles Guidance Sheet (Resource 3.1c) Activity outline: 1. Introduce the lesson’s learning objectives. 2. Divide students into small groups of two or three. Explain some key terms students will need to understand before watching the clip below: • Special effects – effects that cannot be achieved through normal filming techniques, e.g. explosions • Perspective – use of camera shots to create an illusion of size or distance • Camera angles – the placement of a camera to create a particular effect e.g. low-level shot (see Resource 3.1c). 3. Show students the following film footage from the BFI National Archive: Alice in Wonderland (1903) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIXfdogJbA Film Focus: As an extension task, show students the new and old versions of this film and ask them to discuss how the special effects have changed. 4. Ask students how they think these special effects were made. • Do you think the object was actually that big? • What perspective tricks did they use to create this scene? Age: 11-14 years Activity Plan 3.1 - Create Your Own ‘Forced Perspective’
Transcript
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
Our downloadable resources are designed to be used in conjunction with selected film titles, which are available free for clubs at www.filmclub.org
Bring to life the magic of the movies in your classroom by using this guidance sheet to help your students plan, design and create their own special effect. By becoming creators, students will begin to understand why IP is important.
Up to 2 hours
Learning objectives:
• All will begin to understand the hard work that goes into creating a film and the importance of Intellectual Property
• Most will be able to describe how to re-create a special effect in the classroom
• Some will be able to evaluate how to improve the quality of their own special effect.
What you will need: • Refer to health and safety section in Teachers’ Notes
• Interactive whiteboard or similar
• Camera
• Background or scenery
• Figures or props that you want to use in your special effect
• Student activity sheets – How to Create Forced Perspective with Models and Actors (Resource 3.1a)• Student worksheet – Forced Perspective Flow Chart (Resource 3.1b)• Camera Angles Guidance Sheet (Resource 3.1c)
Activity outline:
1. Introduce the lesson’s learning objectives.
2. Divide students into small groups of two or three. Explain some key terms students will need to understand before
watching the clip below:
• Special effects – effects that cannot be achieved through normal filming techniques, e.g. explosions
• Perspective – use of camera shots to create an illusion of size or distance
• Camera angles – the placement of a camera to create a particular effect e.g. low-level shot (see Resource 3.1c).
3. Show students the following film footage from the BFI National Archive:
Alice in Wonderland (1903) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIXfdogJbA
Film Focus: As an extension task, show students the new and old versions of this film and ask them to discuss how
the special effects have changed.
4. Ask students how they think these special effects were made.
• Do you think the object was actually that big?
• What perspective tricks did they use to create this scene?
Age: 11-14 years
Activity Plan 3.1 - Create Your Own ‘Forced Perspective’
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
Our downloadable resources are designed to be used in conjunction with selected film titles, which are available free for clubs at www.filmclub.org
Activity Plan 3.1 - Create Your Own ‘Forced Perspective’
5. Forced perspective is used in many films. Some examples are given below. Use a moment chosen from one film on
this list and/or Resource 3.1a (1/3) to explain how forced perspective works:
• Avatar (2009)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
• Elf (2003)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Sherlock Holmes (2009)
• Alice in Wonderland (2010)
• Gulliver’s Travels (2010)
An interview about the making of Gulliver’s Travels is available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AK07HqqR18
6. Ask students to experiment with the forced perspective effect in their groups using Resource 3.1a.
7. Ask students to record how to make a forced perspective photograph or video in a flow chart (Resource 3.1b).
8. Ask students to experiment with the skills they have learnt to create an original forced perspective photograph.
Have a slideshow exhibition of the photographs taken (15 minutes).
9. Students should share the information in their flow charts at the end of the lesson to assess learning and progress.
They should also be encouraged to reflect on the skill and work that goes into creating scenes such as this in films.
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
How to Create ‘Forced Perspective’ (Resource 3.1a)
Forced Perspective
Great films such as Lord of the Rings and Elf have used perspective to create magical effects; making things
seem bigger or higher than they actually are. Optical illusions that play with the scale of objects are examples of
How to Create ‘Forced Perspective’ (Resource 3.1a)
Forced Perspective Example: Driving a Shoe
This scene can be shot using live video or stop motion techniques.
1. Position a shoe in the foreground and an actor in the background. The actor can walk on set or be there right from
the beginning. The aim is to get the actor to climb into the shoe, sit down and drive it away.
2. Start with a rehearsal first to get the correct shots. The camera person in your group should watch the scene through
the lens of the camera to make sure the scene runs smoothly.
3. Put the shoe on a movable flat surface, as it will need to roll away at the end of the scene. It should be laced up and
placed side-on to the actor. Make sure that it is flat and that you can’t see the inside of the shoe as this will spoil the
effect.
4. Your actor will need to step up onto a chair, swing a leg over and climb down again and stand still facing forward
behind the shoe.
5. When it looks like the actor is ‘inside’ the shoe, more actors can get in.
6. Start the engine by turning the ignition and move the shoe forward. This should be done slowly. It is really important
that the shoe and actors move forward at the same time, so that the actors remain ‘inside’ the shoe until the props
and actors are off camera.
7. As an extension you could add your own sound effects to create more depth to your animation. For advice on how
to use music legally in films, visit: www.filmclub.org/behind-the-scenes/details/325/how-to-legal
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
Forced Perspective Flow Chart (Resource 3.1b)
Forced Perspective Flow Chart
Flow charts are used within D&T to record how to make something. The same symbols are used on all flow charts, and
arrows are used to show the direction of the stages.
Task:
In the space below record how you have made a forced perspective film or image. Use the symbols provided to record
each part of making. Your stages should be detailed enough so another person could use your steps to create their own
film or photograph.
e.g. Create your chart here
Qualitycontrolcheck
StageCollect
equipment/material
Start/end
Start
Collect materials to
make background
of set
Set up materials
to make the
background
Check the
background is big
enough to fill the
camera lens.
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
Camera Shots and Angles (Resource 3.1c)
Camera Shots:
Camera Angles:
Extreme Close-UpAn extreme close-up shows just a small
part of a person or thing. Use it to show an
important detail
Close-UpA close-up shows part of the subject
- their face, or maybe their head and
shoulders. It lets you imagine what they’re
feeling
Mid ShotA mid shot shows the top half of the body.
You can see the face and what the person
is doing
Long ShotA long shot shows someone from head to
foot. You can see the person in the setting
Extreme Long ShotWith an extreme long shot you’re too far
away to recognise people. You can use it at
the start of the film to show the setting.
Low Angle Shot If you want to make a person or thing
seem important or scary, use a low angle
shot that points the camera up at them.
High Angle ShotA high angle shot looks down and makes
people look weaker.
Bird’s-Eye ShotA bird’s-eye shot looks straight down at the
scene or a thing.
Thanks to Tom Barrance
learnaboutfilm.com
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
Our downloadable resources are designed to be used in conjunction with selected film titles, which are available free for clubs at www.filmclub.org
Use this guidance sheet to help your students to plan, design and create their own stop motion movie effect. By becoming creators, students will begin to understand the value of work created by people in the film industry.
Up to 4 hours
Learning objectives:
• All will be able to list techniques for creating special effects in movies
• Most will be able to describe how to re-create a special effect in the classroom
• Some will be able to evaluate how to improve the quality of their own special effect
What you will need: • A digital camera or webcam. Use a low image size to allow for more frames
• Windows Movie Maker or Microsoft PowerPoint for most PCs or JPGVideo, iPhoto and iMovie for the Apple
Macintosh. StopMotion for Linux
• Student activity sheets (Resource 3.2a)• Student worksheet – Manufacturing Diary (Resource 3.2b)• A Storyboard Template (Resource 3.2c) to draw out a short animation sequence so that you know where and how to
move your figure
• Vicky Mather Storyboard (Resource 3.2d)• Plasticine (alternatively students could create their own paper characters or use soft toys)
• Blu-Tac to hold the figure in place for each shot
Activity outline:
1. Introduce the lesson’s learning objectives. Then show students 02:31 - 04:30 which shows behind the scenes at
6. Ask students to complete the Manufacturing Diary (Resource 3.2b) to record how they have made a stop
motion animation.
Stanley Pickle original concept drawings courtesy of Vicky Mather, vickymather.co.uk.
See, think, make. Imagine
Creating Movie Magic
www.intofilm.org
How to Make a Stop Motion ‘Walking Scene’ (Resource 3.2a)
One of the first uses of ‘stop motion’ animation was model animation. This was used to great effect by Ray Harryhausen
in his fantasy movies The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts.
Useful video tutorial: www.animate-it.com/get-animating/getting-started/
How to create this effect:
1. Plan your scene on a storyboard (use Resource 3.2c).2. Create a plasticine figure. Practise making your figure move its arms and legs. Secure your figure to the table with Blu-Tac.
3. Set up your background behind your figure.
4. Use your camera to zoom in so that the background fills the camera screen. Once you have done this you must not
move your camera throughout the scene – using a tripod or something to rest your camera on will help with this.
5. Decide what your figure is going to do. Create the first shot.
6. Take TWO shots with your camera. You need to shoot TWO shots per position to keep the movement smooth.
7. Move the figure slightly for each shot and keep it steady to avoid ‘jump’. Perhaps change the position of the head to
make the movement more realistic.
8. Keep moving the figure along and taking TWO shots until you have completed the scene.
9. You should aim to take between 50-100 photos for a film of up to 10 seconds.
Alternative methods of editing your stop motion animation:
There are a number of tutorials available online for each of these software packages:
• Windows Movie Maker (PC)• JPGVideo (PC) – Once you have your pictures, use JPG Video to create an AVI video from a series of JPEG pictures.
Just point the program to a directory and it will sort the pictures it finds there and merge them into a video. The video
should play on most computers and can be burned to DVD.
